UK Against Fluoridation

Thursday, December 31, 2015

FluorideAlert News Letter

We lost
a Fluoride Fighting giant in 2015

Professor Robert Isaacson
(1928-2015) passed away on August 10. Professor Isaacson was the leader of the
research team that produced the animal study by Varner et al, published in
Brain
Research in 1998, which found that rats fed
fluoride in water at 1 ppm for one year developed kidney damage, brain damage, a
greater uptake of aluminum into the brain and the formation of beta amyloid
deposits which are associated with Alzheimer's disease. Isaacson was also a
member of the National Research Council of the National Academies of Science
panel which authored the groundbreaking report of the toxicology of fluoride in
2006 (NRC, 2006). He attended and presented at the FAN conference in Canton, NY
in the same year. His obituary can be found here

THE GOOD NEWS:

In 2015 we reached the milestone of over
200 communities (at least) that have rejected or ended fluoridation over the
past 5 years! In fact, more than 430 communities have ended existing
fluoridation programs or rejected new efforts to fluoridate either by council
vote or citizen referendum since 1990. In 2015 alone, we’ve confirmed that at
least 21 communities with more than 305,410 residents voted to end
fluoridation, bringing the number of victories
since 2010 to 201 communities with
approximately 5 million people. Many of these victories were the result
of citizens who organized local campaigns with many working in coordination with
FAN or using our materials to educate their neighbors and local decision-makers
about the serious health risks associated with the practice. Some of 2015’s
victories included large communities, such as:

IRISH COUNCIL VOTES AGAINST MANDATORY
FLUORIDATION IN 2015 representing a combined population of
444,195

In 2015, five more
Irish councils formally passed a resolution calling for the Irish Government to
end mandatory fluoridation. Since the beginning of 2014, a total of thirteen
regional and municipal councils representing over 2.5 million Irish citizens
have adopted such a position, including Cork and Dublin, the two largest cities
in the country.

Fluoridated water may be common in the United States, but not in Korea. In 1981, Korea launched a water fluoridation program, but its reach declined from 12.7% to 6.1% of the population between 2000 and 2012. Researchers, then, have noted a significant inverse association between dietary fluoride intake and the prevalence of dental caries.
The study analyzed results from the 4th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2007-2009), focusing on 167 male and 147 female 5-year-olds. These subjects had physical and nutritional examinations including oral examinations, and their parents had completed a health questionnaire.
Based on that data, the researchers estimated the fluoride intake of these children to be 0.35 mg/day, or 0.016 mg per kilogram of body weight per day, with higher decayed or filled surfaces indices for children who had lower dietary fluoride intake. The widely accepted optimal fluoride intake is between 0.05 and 0.07 mg per kilogram of body weight.
Previous studies have indicated that Koreans get 63.9% of their daily fluoride from food, while 97% use fluoride toothpastes. Overall, though, the researchers concluded that the fluoride intake via food was less than optimal and that community caries prevention programs including water fluoridation and supplementation would be beneficial.
The study, “Association Between Estimated Fluoride Intake and Dental Caries Prevalence Among 5-Year-Old Children in Korea,” was published by BMC Oral Health.

Just on 314 people? Anyway it isn't lack of fluoride it's a bad diet that causes caries.

Freedom of Information figures reveal that a 347,556 bill was sent to Bedford Borough Council for the financial year of 2013/14.
The hidden cost to taxpayers was brought to light by campaign group Fluoride Free Bedford, which raises awareness of the health dangers of fluorosilicic acid - the industrial waste by-product that water companies are required to purchase from Norwegian chemical giant, Yara International to fluoridate water.

Cynthia Bagchi Group spokesman said: “The contract to supply Bedford with fluorosilicic acid ends this year, and a new one between the water companies and Yara has to be signed in January to provide the quantity needed for next year. The council is supposed to give them a year’s notice to terminate the contract, and hopefully that’s been done. Otherwise it will be horrendous – we’ll be stuck with a new five-year contract.”
The process of adding fluoride to water, which aims to reduce the prevalence of dental decay, ceased in Bedford Borough in September 2009 to allow works to refurbish the borough’s fluoridation plant.
Some studies link fluoride in tap water to health problems.
A spokesman for Bedford Borough Council said £347,556 bill was for ongoing maintenance of equipment.
He said: “Bedford Borough Council no longer introduces fluoride into the water supply and no agreement has been reached by the local authorities covered by the scheme to re-introduce fluoridation.”
Cllr Louise Jackson, portfolio holder of public health, said: “I want to be absolutely clear, we have not paid a single penny to introduce fluoride to the water supply of any resident in Bedford Borough”.

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Recent research reveals American girls are hitting puberty earlier than ever before. The median age for breast development is now around 9, with rare cases of extreme precocious puberty occurring in girls as young as 4.

Precocious puberty is triggered by premature release of hormones, which results in sexual maturation, sometimes years before the natural norm. Research into the phenomenon reveals that environmental exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals plays a major if not decisive role.

Interestingly, recent research1 also claims that high sugar consumption—specifically soda—can affect young girls' rate of maturation. According to associate professor Karin Michels, who studies links between environmental exposures, genetics and disease:

"Our study adds to increasing concern about the widespread consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks among children and adolescents.

The main concern is about childhood obesity, but our study suggests that age of first menstruation (menarche) occurred earlier, independently of body mass index, among girls with the highest consumption of drinks sweetened with added sugar."

Early onset of puberty has ramifications that go far beyond mere physical changes. Emotions, behavior, mental and physical health can all be detrimentally affected.

While some parents are resorting to drug treatment to keep puberty at bay in their prematurely developing daughters, a more proactive approach would be to limit exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals, starting as early before birth as possible, and to address your child's diet—specifically restricting all forms of sugar as much as possible....................

Blowing the pro-water-fluoridation argument out of the water, a new study by Harvard and University College London just found Brits — notoriously crooked smiles and all — actually have better dental health than people in the United States. No, seriously.

Despite a water fluoridation rate of 66%, and 74% for those who rely on a public source, Americans’ dental health simply doesn’t match up to that of their British counterparts — where only 10% of supply contains fluoride.

“Contrary to popular belief, our study showed that the oral health of U.S. citizens is not better than the English, with Americans having significantly more missing teeth,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Richard Watt, Professor in Dental Public Health, Dept. of Epidemiology and Public Health, at UCL.

“There is a longstanding belief in the United States that the British have terrible teeth, much worse than U.S. citizens. This view dates back at least 100 years, with toothpaste adverts extolling the virtues of American smiles.

“Contemporary examples of this belief in popular U.S. culture range from The Simpsons to the popular Hollywood character Austin Powers and his repugnant smile.”

Researchers looked to data on thousands of people in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and the English Adult Dental Health Survey and found the “mean number of missing teeth was significantly higher in the U.S.,” at 7.31 versus 6.97 in England. The numbers are striking for juveniles, as 12-year-old Britons with missing or filled teeth averaged 0.7, while U.S. 12-year-olds averaged 1.3. With fluoridated water being touted as the reason for outstanding dental health in the U.S., the results of this study certainly call such boastful claims to task.

In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found rates of dental fluorosis — “caused by long-term ingestion of fluoride during the time teeth are forming” and characterized by white spots in its mildest forms, to “staining and pitting in the more severe forms” — increased from 1999-2004 (the year of its study data) over previous numbers in the period from 1986-1987. This happened despite the original goal of fluoridation in the 1930s of decreasing the dental fluorosis rate. According to the CDC’s web page on Community Fluoridation:

“Water and processed beverages (e.g. soft drinks and fruit juices [note: food processed using fluoridated water is listed elsewhere]) can provide approximately 75% of a person’s fluoride intake […] You should know the fluoride concentration in your primary source of drinking water, especially if you have young children.”

With all this fluoride consumed in the U.S., one would expect the Harvard/UCL study to have dramatically different findings — if fluoridated water were actually doing what the government purports. Though the study did not factor in rates of fluoridation — and indeed was “not able to explore in depth potential explanations for [its] findings” — the comparison is certainly worth consideration.

“Water fluoridation was implemented before statistics had been compiled on its safety or effectiveness,” Stephen Peckham, Director and Professor of Health Policy at Kent University’s Centre for Health Service Studies, told the Guardian. “You can’t really confidently say that water fluoridation is either safe or effective. There is a problem where the evidence is seen as either totally in favor or totally negative, and it’s more murky than that.”

“It’s been going on since 1950, and we are still having the same arguments over the same research,” Peckham continued. “We don’t have the information to address this. I think they should have a moratorium [on water fluoridation].”

In the meantime, you might want to rethink jabbing the Brits for their, er, gangly smiles.

Today, fluoride is everywhere. Dentists push fluoride treatments on us, it’s in our tap water, it’s in our commercial toothpastes and mouth washes – whether or not you think fluoride is bad, come on, we can all agree that it’s wrong for the government to forcibly medicate us by adding it to so many things, right?

Fluoride is a neurotoxin, plain and simple. The debate on that is closed. It’s been used in the past by Communists and Nazis to lower IQs and make people more compliant, and it can also calcify the pineal gland, cutting us off from the spiritual seat of the mind.

But a new studypublished in Pharmacognosy Magazine finds that curcumin, a constituent found in turmeric, helps prevent damage to the brain caused by fluoride............

A landmark study of more than 97 million dental claims, conducted by Delta Dental Plans Association, found two-thirds of children who are at higher risk of developing cavities aren't getting recommended preventive dental care.

The study determined that twenty-seven percent of children through age 18 are at a higher risk of developing cavities as measured by a history of recent fillings. Of those children:

65% did not receive two fluoride treatments per year.

68% of 6- to 9-year-olds didn't receive sealants on their first permanent molars.

85% of those ages 10 to 14 didn't receive sealants on their second permanent molars.

The American Dental Association (ADA) recommends children at higher risk of tooth decay receive two fluoride treatments a year as well as sealants on their first and second permanent molars. Such treatments are commonly fully-covered benefits.......

Fluoridation - fluoride treatment - sealants - Instead of poisoning the children and adults why not deal with the cause: too much sugar.

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

FAN Newsletter

FAN's
current fundraising total stands at $98,428 from a total of 430
donors. Thank you to everyone who has donated so far! These funds are critical
for ensuring that we have the resources to take on the big battles in
2016.

While we are still short of our goal of $200,000,
we have just received two very generous pledges. Once we reach $100,000, one
supporter has pledged $5,000, and if we can reach $110,000, a second supporter
has pledged $10,000! With these pledges, it is very possible that we can get to
$120,000 today, and with another miracle or two, we may just be able to make our
ambitious goal.

You can donate online through our secure server, or you can send a check
(payable to FAN) to Fluoride Action Network, 104 Walnut Street, Binghamton NY
13905.

All donations are tax-deductible because FAN is a
project of the American Environmental Heath Studies Project (a 501c3
organization).

Now over to Michael for some short new FAN videos
and a great new online campaign.

Paul Connett, PhD

Coordinator of FAN’s 2015 Fundraising
campaign

New PSAs
and Online Campaign

Today, FAN is releasing two short new
Public Service Announcements (PSAs) on fluoride -- one which discusses the "neurotoxin in our
water" and one that provides a short introduction
to water fluoridation. Both PSAs are
very brief, and are part of a new series that is designed to spark interest in
the fluoride issue among younger populations (e.g., "the
millenials").

The PSAs were filmed with the gracious
help of Dr. Valerie Kanter and a group of young and enthusiastic supporters in
the Los Angeles area. We encourage people to post these videos on Facebook and
other social media pages.

In addition to providing basic
information about fluoride, the PSAs link to a new online
campaign that FAN has created for U.S. residents.
The campaign, our first with Phone2Action, calls on both federal AND state
representatives to take action to end fluoridation. The campaign, which can
be accessed
online, allows you to email, tweet, and
facebook message your elected representatives with several simple clicks of the
button.

The point
of the campaign is to make it clear to elected officials that mass fluoridation
with a neurotoxic, endocrine-disrupting chemical is not an acceptable policy
option in the 21st century, and that this is an issue that voters expect action
on. The campaign is not calling for any specific action at this point, but that
will come. For now, the campaign -- in conjunction with the PSAs -- seeks to
increase the visibility of the fluoride issue in both the political and social
media spheres.

We will be releasing additional PSAs in this series over
the coming days/weeks, so please stay tuned!

(NaturalNews) We constantly stimulate our senses to keep ourselves entertained, burying our eyes in light devices and material things. We look for places where we can belong, filling bar stools and sanctuary pews with blank stares and closed hearts. Our physical bodies congregate, so close together, but the measurable energy fields between our hearts has never been so dull and divided. We spend money to keep ourselves happy, walking the store aisles feeling need and lack. We search for meaning in all the wrong places, ultimately winding up disconnected, depressed, and unfulfilled.

We have been taught to view other people as strangers, that we are all separate beings. While we are all unique with different experiences and perspectives, we are all still very much alike and connected, co-creating together on an abundant, spherical planet.

Can you imagine the possibilities for peace if we understood the spiritual connection we all share? Our egos and desires to control, convert, and conquer the world would shed like dead skin, helping us see everyone around us with new eyes. The division lines of made-up religions would erase and we would come to a much more eternal understanding of what it means to be alive as one.

In our religions and denominations, in our synagogues and churches, we search for higher connection, but the dogmas and rules only suppress our spiritual bodies, alienating us from our brothers and sisters. In our emptiness, we are swayed by emotional messages of guilt and fear cast upon us from manipulative dogmas that try to interpret God's will for us. As our path is dictating to us, we lose our spiritual sovereignty and our connection to Spirit Source that is living inside us and constantly interacting. What is holding human spiritual connection back?.................................

Monday, December 28, 2015

The 'smoking gun' behind deprived kids' bad teeth.

Kids from deprived backgrounds, we
are told by Public Health England (PHE), have worse dental decay, and
fluoridation will help cure it. If you're still persuaded that PHE's busy little
propagandists know what they are talking about, here's a couple of interesting
items that you may have missed, because they certainly have. So let's just take
a quick look at this 'deprivation' issue.

First deprivation doesn't cause poor
health. It's associated with it, sure, but deprivation is a relative thing -
deprived compared with who else? But there are things going on in deprived areas
that are different from more affluent areas. One of them is smoking. It's much
more common amongst people living in these so-called 'deprived' communities.
It's partly down to personality and psychological attitude - “Everyone else
does, so I may as well!” - and partly down to a rather weird ''neighbourhood
effect' associated with poorer housing and other physical influences of these
run-down districts.

But then, on top of that, if there
is a smoker in the house then more babies in these communities are exposed to
passive smoke. And if they breath in this 'passive' smoke during the time
between birth and three months of age, they develop around twice as much dental
decay later as kids brought up in a smoke-free home.

That's right - just
breathing the fumes as a baby doubles the risk of getting bad teeth later, as a
young kid. So the poor smoke more than the rich, their kids breath the smoke,
and then they get more tooth decay. .This provides a credible alternative
explanation - a confounding factor - for the very real increase in dental decay
in kids from deprived communities.

But that decay isn't down to their
being 'deprived' - it's a far more complex sociological problem, that has
nothing to do with whether or not there's any fluoride in their drinking water.
Only an idiot or an obsessive would claim that dribbling this toxic substance
into the public water supply could possibly stop poor parents smoking at home!

FAN Newsletter

So, what does Fluoride Action Network
have in store for 2016? As FAN's new Executive Director, let me take a second to
spell out some of the projects we have in mind for the next
year.

Cutting-Edge Investigative Work: FAN has the researchers and experience that
enable us to provide the best, most up-to-date, cutting-edge information on
fluoride. The American Dental Association (ADA) may have the money, but we have
the scoop. The ADA wants to hide the truth: we want to reveal it. As Executive
Director, I intend to significantly expand FAN's investigative work, which we'll
be actively pitching to media outlets as well as publishing in our own feature
reports. There are lots of stories that remain untold; data that remains
unknown; questions that remain unasked. FAN's investigative work will shine a
spotlight on important areas of the fluoride issue that remain poorly
understood. In the process, we will be creating the news, rather than simply
responding to it.

Exposing Corporate Bad Actors: In 2016, FAN will be launching a campaign to
expose the widespread fluoride hazards that have been created by the reckless
actions of several major corporations. This campaign will exert much needed
pressure on these corporations to change their behavior, and -- in the process
-- will create fruitful media opportunities for raising awareness about the many
sources of fluoride which millions of Americans are now exposed to on a daily
basis.

Pushing for a Federally-Enforceable Safe Drinking
Water Standard: The Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) is in the process of revising its safe drinking water
standard for fluoride. If EPA does its job and implements a standard that
protects against known and "reasonably anticipated" adverse health effects, it
will need to set a standard that protects against fluoride's neurotoxicity which
would spell the end to water fluoridation. FAN will be working closely with
former EPA scientist Dr. Bill Hirzy to make sure that EPA does its
job.

Raising Awareness About Safer
Alternatives: FAN will
be teaming up with Dr. Valerie Kanter, a dentist (endodontist) in Los Angeles,
California to help raise public awareness about safer ways of preventing tooth
decay than mass fluoridation of our water with a
neurotoxin.

Greater Social Media
Visibility: To help increase the public visibility of our
investigative and campaigning work, we will be working to expand FAN's presence
on social media, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We have hired the
services of Phone2Action to help us in this effort, and I expect
this will help to significantly expand the reach of our work.

Videos
& Podcasts: In 2016, FAN will be creating a series of short videos to
help us get the fluoride message out to new audiences. We will be posting our
first new videos this week, so stay tuned! I am particularly eager to create
videos that show the human side of fluoride toxicity by featuring people who
have had their own health impaired by fluoride exposure. If you would be
willing to share your story, please email me at michael@fluoridealert.org. In
addition to producing new videos, I am also considering the possibility of
running a regular audio podcast, where I will discuss the latest news, research,
and answer FAN member questions.

Website Upgrades: Yes, the time has come to polish up FAN's
website, and I have already begun working with a web programmer to do just that.
The first project will be to make FAN's website more compatible with mobile
devices, iPads and smart phones. After we complete this (which I expect will be
within the next few weeks), we will be adding some new features to the site and
sprucing up the design. If there are any issues with the website that you think
we need to address, please email me at
michael@fluoridealert.org.

FAN Conference in Washington
DC: We have found that FAN conferences are very popular with our supporters.
By meeting other people working on the issue around the country and world, the
conferences provide a great morale boost for all of us, local campaigners and
FAN staff alike. This year, we hope to once again host the conference in
Washington D.C. in September. More details to come.As those who know me know, I have a
passion for unearthing information and for bringing truth to power. Whether it
be translating new fluoride toxicity studies from Chinese and Russian medical
journals, obtaining internal correspondence under the Freedom of Information
Act, or scouring the National Archives for documents that shed light on the
politics of fluoridation, I will be bringing this passion to bear over the
coming year. And I couldn't ask for a better partner in this effort than Chris
Neurath, who I've had the pleasure of working with on the fluoride issue for the
past 15 years.

I take this vocation seriously -- it is
not a job to me, it is a mission, a life journey. Over the next year, you can
count on FAN to provide you the most up-to-date, original, and reliable
information on fluoride, and in ways that will help us break through to larger
audiences than ever before.

Sunday, December 27, 2015 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
(NaturalNews) For over a year, California's capital city had been poisoning the public water supply – in secret – with chemicals that are known carcinogens, and that have never been approved for use in the water treatment process. This was the disturbing finding of a recent investigation by local Sacramento news affiliate ABC10 News, which revealed that Sacramento residents were treated as human guinea pigs in a heinous government scandal involving massive human rights abuses.

Between 2013 and 2014, the City of Sacramento began quietly adding a chemical known as aluminum chlorohydrate, or ACH, to the public water supply in a supposed effort to save money on water purification. ACH was introduced as a replacement for ALUM – another chemical that had previously been used to remove larger particulates – because it is said to be cheaper than ALUM.

ACH was never properly safety tested, and in fact was known at the time to cause cancer, miscarriages and birth defects when ingested or inhaled. But city officials decided to add it anyway, which resulted in many local residents developing these and other health problems. Some residents even developed cancer as a result of consuming the contaminated water throughout the course of the year.

It was quickly discovered, however, that ACH isn't even an effective water treatment method. But rather than remove the chemical altogether, the City of Sacramento took things a step further by adding excess amounts of chlorine in an effort to boost the efficacy of ACH – a move that would later prove to create an even more toxic substance.

"An astonishing failure, the combination of excess chlorine and aluminum chlorohydrate ended up yielding carcinogenic toxins known as 'DBPs' — disinfection byproducts," explains The AntiMedia. "Specifically, these are in the class of chemicals known as THMs, or Trihalomethanes.......

Article published Dec 28, 2015
Fluoride opponents
argue points
The Vermont State Dental Society has begun its campaign effort in
Rutland in anticipation of the March 1 advisory vote. Its glossy
handout is titled “The REAL Facts About Fluoride.”
A few observations:
1. “REAL Facts” insinuates that opposition to fluoridation, which
offers only ordinary “facts,” is quackery. This kind of put­down has
been a standard tactic of the pro­fluoridation forces from the
beginning. Yet, their own “facts” are demonstrably false or only
partly true in many cases.
2. In its handout, the Dental Society uses the words “fluoride” and
“fluoridation” interchangeably. This is a clever sleight­of­hand.
“Fluoride” in toothpaste and other topical applications is much less
controversial than “fluoridation” and generally accepted as effective
in preventing tooth decay.
Very little toothpaste or fluoride rinse is swallowed when properly
used. Also, one has a choice to use it or not. “Fluoridation” is much
different. It’s effectiveness is doubtful. The dose one receives is
uncontrolled. Fluoride is in the drinking water, and people lack a
choice unless they buy bottled water. By using the two words
interchangeably, the benefits of “fluoride” used topically are subtly
linked to “fluoridation.” This is clever public relations but not honest
communication.
3. “Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral and a proven strategy
for improving a community’s oral and general health,” declares Dr.
Grace Dickinson­Branon of St. Albans, president of the Dental Society.
Well, at least she’s not calling it a “nutrient,” which the dentists often
do. How is fluoride used in fluoridation a “mineral?” What Rutland
adds to its water is fluorosilicic acid, a corrosive hazardous waste
byproduct of the phosphate fertilizer business, and not “natural” at
all.
4. “It is safe, proven and effective,” says Dr. Judith Fisch of
Rutland, trustee of the American Dental Association, about
fluoridation. As far as “real facts” go, the “safe” and “proven” are
simply assertions, with much evidence suggesting neither is accurate.
“Effective?” Marginally effective, or not at all effective, are closer to
the truth.
JACK CROWTHER
Rutland

Sunday, December 27, 2015

The Daily Mail embedded this video under Stephen's report filmed in Australia in an empty hall. Why couldn't they find a more appropriate video like this one where Stephen addressed a packed hall on a wet, cold evening in Southampton.

Fluoride 'could give you bone cancer' claim experts as they call for a halt to adding the chemical to drinking water
Health experts want fluoridation stopped amid serious health concerns
Chemical is added to water supply of 6m in Britain to fight tooth decay
Public Health England says it is 'safe and effective' process
By JOSEPH CURTIS FOR MAILONLINE
Health experts have called for a halt to adding fluoride to drinking water amid claims it could give people bone cancer.
The chemical has been added to water supplies covering six million people in the UK for more than 40 years and the process is backed by Public Health England who say it is a 'safe and effective' health measure to combat tooth decay.
But researchers are now saying it may cause seriously dangerous side effects such as bone and bladder cancers and also lower children's IQs.
Stephen Peckham, professor of health policy at the centre for health service studies at Kent University, said the process was introduced before there was enough research to demonstrate its safety and effectiveness.
He told The Guardian: 'It's a dental health policy that's got up a head of steam and people have been reluctant to see it criticised.
'You can't really confidently say that water fluoridation is either safe or effective. There is a problem where the evidence is seen as either totally in favour or totally negative and it's more murky than that.'
Prof Peckham has led research into whether hyperthyroidism - which can cause anxiety, sleeping problems and muscle weakness - is linked to fluoridation but said there are problems with evidence on both sides of the argument.
He added he wanted to see the process stopped and a study set up to see its effects on children in fluoridated and non-fluoridated areas.
It comes after the Cochrane Collaboration, an organisation of 14,000 academics, reviewed fluoridation evidence earlier this year - but they too failed to come to a conclusion.
The researchers found data showed there was some effectiveness in reducing tooth decay but that the only studies deemed admissible were from before 1975 and the risk of bias was high.
Britain is one of few countries in the world that allow fluoridation schemes, where it is aimed to deliver 1mg of the chemical per litre.
In contrast, the US this year reduced the level of fluoride in its water to 0.7mg per litre.
But Public Health England continues to back the scheme and has said it is a 'safe and effective measure'.
The government body said fluoridation was one of a range of actions it promoted to battle tooth decay, with others including supervised brushing.
According to its research, 45 per cent fewer children aged one to four were admitted to hospital in areas that were fluoridated last year than in those that were not.

Saturday, December 26, 2015

Friday Dec 25, 2015 (foodconsumer.org) -- High exposure to fluoride is known to be a risk factor for dental fluorosis. A new study conducted in China now suggests that high amounts of ingested fluoride from drinking water and foods may also damage skeletal bone and induce skeletal fluorosis.

The study found fluoride can disturb the arrangement of collagen fibers and cause adverse ultrastructural changes in bone. The study also found fluoride decreases the transcription of the COL1A1 gene and the production of collagen protein in bone.

Previous studies have already revealed long-term excessive ingestion of fluoride can induce skeletal fluorosis and damage type I collagen, which plays a role in bone stability and cell biological function.

Fluoride, which is not a nutrient that plays any role in human physiology, has been known to be a neurotoxin. Studies show fluoride exposure lowers IP in children. Boys may be more sensitive to the adverse effects of fluoride. Elevated risk for a rare bone cancer has been found in boys who had high intake of fluoride.

Fluoride is added in about 74% of U.S. public drinking water to prevent dental caries while the subject remains controversial as studies often do not support the notion that fluoridation is protective against dental disease. (David Liu)

Fluorine is the world’s 13th most abundant element and constitutes 0.08% of the Earth crust. It has the highest electronegativity of all elements. Fluoride is widely distributed in the environment, occurring in the air, soils, rocks, and water. Although fluoride is used industrially in a fluorine compound, the manufacture of ceramics, pesticides, aerosol propellants, refrigerants, glassware, and Teflon cookware, it is a generally unwanted byproduct of aluminium, fertilizer, and iron ore manufacture. The medicinal use of fluorides for the prevention of dental caries began in January 1945 when community water supplies in Grand Rapids, United States, were fluoridated to a level of 1 ppm as a dental caries prevention measure. However, water fluoridation remains a controversial public health measure. This paper reviews the human health effects of fluoride. The authors conclude that available evidence suggests that fluoride has a potential to cause major adverse human health problems, while having only a modest dental caries prevention effect. As part of efforts to reduce hazardous fluoride ingestion, the practice of artificial water fluoridation should be reconsidered globally, while industrial safety measures need to be tightened in order to reduce unethical discharge of fluoride compounds into the environment. Public health approaches for global dental caries reduction that do not involve systemic ingestion of fluoride are urgently needed.

Critics call for end to scheme designed to prevent tooth decay in children, saying its effectiveness remains unproved
Public Health England says fluoridation is an effective health measure, but critics say it was implemented before statistics had been compiled on its safety or effectiveness.
Friday 25 December 2015 18.30 GMT
Water fluoridation has been in place in England for more than 40 years, and now covers about 6 million people. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls adding fluoride to drinking water one of the 10 great public health achievements in the 20th century.

Public Health England (PHE) describes it as “a safe and effective public health measure” to combat tooth decay in children and, alongside dentists’ groups, has called for it to be implemented more widely.

Call for water fluoridation across England to cut childhood tooth decay

But health experts are calling for a moratorium on water fluoridation, claiming that the benefits of such schemes, as opposed to those of topical fluoride (directly applied to the teeth), are unproved.

Furthermore, critics cite studies claiming to have identified a number of possible negative associations of fluoridation, including bone cancer in boys, bladder cancer, hyperthyroidism, hip fractures and lower IQ in children.

Stephen Peckham, director and professor of health policy at Kent University’s centre for health service studies, said: “Water fluoridation was implemented before statistics had been compiled on its safety or effectiveness. It was the only cannon shot they had in their armoury. It gets rolled out, becomes – in England – policy and then you look for evidence to support it.

“The fat debate [whereby fat used to be the big enemy in food before that was revised] is an example of evidence getting built up to support a theory. It’s a dental health policy that’s got up a head of steam and people have been reluctant to see it criticised.

“You can’t really confidently say that water fluoridation is either safe or effective. There is a problem where the evidence is seen as either totally in favour or totally negative and it’s more murky than that.”

Earlier this year, the Cochrane collaboration, a respected not-for-profit organisation of 14,000 academics, reviewed the evidence but failed to settle the debate.

It said data indicated fluoridation was effective in reducing tooth decay in children, but that the studies deemed admissible were nearly all pre-1975, and the estimated size of the positive effect was limited by their observational nature, high risk of bias and the applicability of the evidence to current lifestyles.

The experts also found a “significant association” between dental fluorosis (tooth staining) and fluoride level.

PHE said in 2014 it had found that as many as 45% fewer children aged one to four were admitted to hospital for tooth decay in areas where water is fluoridated than in those where it is not, but added that “potential problems with data quality means that this observation should be treated with caution”.

Peckham led research on hyperthyroidism being possibly linked to fluoridation but says there are problems with academic papers on both sides of the debate.

“It’s been going on since 1950 and we are still having the same arguments over the same research,” he said. “We don’t have the information to address this. I think they should have a moratorium.”

Peckham would like to see a study following similar groups of children in fluoridated and non-fluoridated areas.

Paul Connett, a Briton who taught chemistry at St Lawrence University, in New York, for 23 years, and helped set up the Fluoride Action Network in the US, said studies describing fluoride as a “neurotoxicant” should ring alarm bells.

“They have to justify forcing this on people who don’t want it – it’s a violation of the principle of informed consent,” he said. “You can couple that with the fact that once you put it in the water you can’t control the dose or who it goes to. Also, is it effective? At least demonstrate that it’s effective and then demonstrate that it’s safe.”

US lowers fluoride levels in drinking water for first time in over 50 years
Read more
The UK remains among a small minority of countries that permit fluoridation. In the US, the maximum concentration was lowered in April, for the first time in 50 years, to 0.7mg fluoride per litre of water (UK schemes aim to deliver 1mg), amid concerns people are getting too much now it is also in products such as toothpaste and mouthwash.

Some of the risks identified in studies are based on higher concentrations but Connett says no credible margin of safety has been established. He suggests alternatives such as Childsmile, a Scottish scheme, which includes supervised toothbrushing in primary schools and nurseries in deprived areas are preferable.

PHE’s director of dental public health, Dr Sandra White, said: “Reviews of the evidence from around the world agree that water fluoridation is a safe and effective measure to help reduce tooth decay. None of the reports on water fluoridation by international health bodies have identified any evidence of harm.

“Water fluoridation is one of a range of actions, including supervised tooth brushing, that councils can consider to improve oral health in their area. Ultimately it’s beneficial to get fluoride from toothpaste when brushing teeth as well as from water which offers a background level throughout the day.”

Friday, December 25, 2015

Nothing on the Net that I could find worth putting on the blog so as it is Christmas and a time we do perhaps search for spiritual enlightenment below is a video on the subject. I've just listened to the first 11 minutes and found it interesting.We do live in a miraculous world of mystery.Good wishes for this Christmas holiday.Bill

Thursday, December 24, 2015

FluorideAlert News Letter

In 1996, when we first got involved with
this battle, I thought it was going to be easy. It’s now 20 years later and we
are still struggling to end this reckless practice. We continue this struggle
year after year because we know that we are right and no matter how much power
and money opponents have to muddy the waters we will never give in. So once
again we print our favorite cartoon.

We bring to this battle what we brought
to the battle against the building of waste incinerators in the 1980s and 1990s.
Virtually all governments were FOR incineration and worked hand-in-glove with
industry to build them everywhere. However, between 1985 and 1995 we (Work on
Waste, USA) helped citizens defeat over 300 incinerator proposals. Since 1997
ONLY ONE new incinerator has been built in the USA and some of those that were
built have since been closed down.
We are using the same formula in our
battle against fluoridation. Our advice:

1)Learn the issue by doing your
research

2)Form a group and work together to
educate your community, media and politicians

3)Network with other groups by
learning from one another and sharing successes

4)Have fun while your doing
it

This battle has proved much harder than
fighting incineration because, a) people saw the threat of incineration more
clearly and b) this foolish idea of fluoridation has taken almost hypnotic
control of the US dental, medical and publish health establishment. In U.S.
regulatory agencies this policy has fossilized with disastrous consequences to
scientific integrity. When policy is king, science becomes its slave. In
short, there are many reputations and livelihoods that depend on this practice
continuing.
But this battle is easier in one respect.
Communication technology from the video camera to the lap top computer makes
communication easier, cheaper and faster. When “truth” is at stake this helps to
level the playing field. The other side is trying to play catch-up here but
their task is so much more difficult than ours: we want to reveal the truth they
want to hide it! Nearly every new study helps us, but hurts them.
The one sentence - that will eventually
bring down fluoridation is: Fluoride is neurotoxic. It borders on
insanity for a society to knowingly expose the next generation –womb to grave
– to a substance that can interfere with the development of the
brain.
Our task then is to get this message out
to more and more people – with little help from the mainstream media. We don’t
have the money that our opponents have but we have more creativity. That is why
it is so great to have Michael back with FAN full time. He loves all this
technological stuff and these modern ways of communication. By reaching out to a
lot of creative young people we can deliver our message as never before. In the
next few bulletins he will be giving you some exciting new examples.

Meanwhile, it is critical that we raise
enough money to do this. Ours is a huge team effort. We need your financial
support more than ever to put Michael’s ambitious new strategy into action so
please give as generously as you can today.

John Hult, jhult@argusleader.com
New, lower fluoride standards will save the state’s water treatment plants about $400,000 a year, according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

The additive is intended to prevent tooth decay and has been added to most municipal water systems in South Dakota for decades, based on federal recommendations.
The standard for how much fluoride ought to be added to prevent tooth decay changed at the federal level this April, however, after a yearslong comment period.
The adoption of the old standard in 1962 meant water systems were to aim for an optimal dose of 1.2 parts per million. Since then, however, toothpastes in the U.S. have become more useful in battling tooth decay.

“There’s more toothpaste that’s readily available with fluoride in it, so (the higher standard) wasn’t as necessary,” said Mark Mayer, the administrator of the DENR’s drinking water program.
The new standard aims for an optimal dose of 0.7 parts per million, and the two public comments the DENR took on the proposed rule changes were from people who opposed the fluoridation of water altogether, Mayer told the legislature’s rules review committee last week.

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

FluorideAlert Newsletter

My Personal Story About Fluoride and
FAN

-Julie Simms-

I’m writing today to share my gratitude to FAN, along
with my story and how your organization changed my life. I’ll be making a
donation again this year, but somehow that didn’t seem like enough. I owe your
organization tremendous thanks for helping me to win the battle of my life,
which was discovering the primary cause of my 30-year struggle with migraines:
Fluoride.
At the age of 7, I had my first glass of fluoridated
drinking water. At 14, I experienced my first migraine headache. And though I
have no family history of any sort of headaches, I spent 30 years suffering with
chronic migraines. They were less common at first, just a few each year.
Gradually they increased in frequency but also in severity and length of time
they would last. Then by 2002, and for the next 12 years, I had a moderate to
severe headache every single day. Every. Single. Day.
I tried all remedies you could imagine. Medications,
vitamins, enzymes, exercise, diet, acupuncture, meditation, more sleep, less
sleep, and I would often drink a lot of water in hopes of relieving possible
dehydration.
In early 2013, a friend suggested fluoridated drinking
water could be causing my headaches. Initially, I was very skeptical. I was a
supporter of fluoridation and had even voted for it when I lived in Newport
Beach CA. I heard it was safe and effective in caring for our teeth. I never
thought to ask: What is the fluoride doing to the rest of our
body?
Truthfully, I believed I would find research to tell
me just that. The United States had been fluoridating water supplies for 60+
years and I expected to find studies to prove its safety. I visited the CDC and
found loads of studies about the use of fluoride to treat dental caries, but
nothing about safety for the rest of the body. When I searched beyond the CDC, I
found FAN. I found an article about the effects of fluoride on the brain. I
watched a video with a dentist talking about the warning labels on toothpaste
about swallowing and yet, I was drinking glasses and glasses of this stuff
daily. I saw names of medical and dental professionals who did not support water
fluoridation. In other words, I saw enough evidence to at least try to see what
would happen if I eliminated fluoridated drinking water.
So in 2013, I tried a fluoride-free life in hopes it
would help. I expected everything else to help. Nothing did. I did NOT expect
eliminating fluoride to work. Yet within 3 days my daily headaches were much
less painful. Within a few weeks they were completely gone. And after 30 years
of chronic pain, I got my life back.
I now know the main trigger of these headaches was
fluoridated water. I know this in part because when I lived in non-fluoridated
communities, I had no headaches. It was mysterious to me that I didn’t get
migraines in some places I lived, such as Chico California and Tottori Japan.
Those cities don’t fluoridate. But in other cities, such as San Francisco and
Palo Alto California, I had several headaches a month. And I also know this
because I took part in a strict fluoride elimination diet, such as people use to
identify allergens.
My doctor has further advised me not to bathe in
fluoridated water, so I also started to filter that water.
But I worry how many other Americans are unknowingly
suffering side effects of fluoridated water. I worry for infants, the immune
compromised and those with sensitivities, like me.
Giving a substance to every member of society without
consideration of their medical history, recommended dose, or sensitivity to
medication and toxins is unethical and can have serious, widespread health
effects.
Thank you FAN for offering information, local
resources, and assistance to those looking for information. We
should have been given that information by those who promised
fluoride was safe, even for systemic use. I for one am ready for the day when
my tap water will be free of fluoride.

But the study's lead author, Stephen Peckham, BSc, MA, a professor of health policy at the University of Kent and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the United Kingdom, stands by his findings. "Some of the conclusions might be overstated, but I don't think that makes a difference to the actual analysis," he told Medscape Medical News.

Dr Peckham said he got interested in water fluoridation when it was proposed for Southampton in the United Kingdom, where he lives.

"I started to look at the evidence and found that perhaps the evidence for water fluoridation was not has clear cut as it was being presented," he said.

He joined the campaign against fluoridation that eventually succeeded in stopping the initiative in Southampton.

Later, after a colleague noted locations with elevated hypothyroidism around England, he began documenting an association with water fluoridation. About 10% of people in England live in areas where fluoride is added to water.

Relying on data kept by individual practitioners, Dr Peckham and colleagues estimated that the odds of a practice recording high levels of hypothyroidism was 1.4 times higher (odds ratio, 1.371; 95% confidence interval, 1.120 - 1.679) in areas with maximum fluoride levels, from higher than 0.3 mg/L to 0.7 mg/L, and 1.6 times higher in areas with maximum fluoride in excess of 0.7 mg/L (odds ratio, 1.621; 95% confidence interval, 1.379 - 1.904) than it was for practices in areas with maximum fluoride levels of 0.3 mg/L or less.

Dr Peckham and colleagues also cite earlier research suggesting that high levels of fluoride can disrupt thyroid function; in particular, a 2006 review by the National Research Council of the US Environmental Protection Agency's standards for fluoride in drinking water.

That review concluded that "several lines of information indicate an effect of fluoride exposure on thyroid function. However...it is difficult to predict exactly what effects on thyroid function are likely at what concentration of fluoride exposure and under what circumstances."

An "Appalling Paper"

Not only is the National Research Council report equivocal, other reviews cited in Dr Peckham's paper also do not support his conclusions, says Dr Foley. For example, the European Commission's Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks concludes that, "A systematic evaluation of the human studies does not suggest a potential thyroid effect at realistic exposures to fluoride."

As for Dr Peckham's finding of a correlation between fluoridation and hypothyroidism in England, Dr Foley said that it did not adequately take into consideration the potential that geographical variation in iodine intake could confound the results.

Dr Peckham and colleagues acknowledge the importance of iodine to thyroid function, but they write that "the major source of iodine in the UK is from the diet and it is unlikely that there are significant differences between people residing in fluoridated and non-fluoridated areas."

Yet the studies Dr Peckham and colleagues cite do not show that iodine levels are uniform from one part of England to another, Dr Foley argued.

Dr Peckham, who is preparing a written response to the some of these critiques, has not budged from his bottom line. The evidence for a benefit is not strong enough to support community water fluoridation, and the evidence for harm is not weak enough to be dismissed, he said.

"I think on that basis, I would recommend that oral health switch to noningested fluoride," said Dr Peckham.

He cited a study published in June in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. The study concluded that "water fluoridation is effective at reducing levels of tooth decay among children," but that the "the results are based predominantly on old studies and may not be applicable today."

In the meantime, with both sides entrenched in their positions, research is difficult, he said. "It's a bit of a mine field."

Dr Peckham disclosed that he was involved in a campaign in Southampton to prevent the ﬂuoridation of drinking water. The other authors and Dr Foley have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

J Epidemiol Community Health. Published online February 24, 2015. Abstract
__________________________________________________________
One sure way to prove if fluoride harms the brain is to collect data from those people who had all their teeth removed at a young age before fluoride toothpaste.
Is there less Alzheimer's amongst these people than those who had a life time of swallowing fluoride?
Count me in the first group and at 81 my brain isn't too bad.
(I blame poor diet too much sugar and ignorance for my rotten teeth)
Bill

I nearly fell off my chair a couple years ago when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention named fluoridation one of our country’s greatest public health achievements.

Sure. It’s right up there with leeches and giving people a shot of whisky before surgery.

The fact is, water fluoridation may be one of the most dangerous mass medication experiments in world history. And the damage may be worse than we’d imagined.

You see, British researchers recently studied the health records from thousands of patients across the country. And they found that people in communities that fluoridate their water were a whopping 30 percent more likely to suffer from thyroid disease — specifically hypothyroidism or underactive thyroid.

That’s not necessarily a surprise. We’ve known for years that fluoride suppresses several enzymes vital to thyroid function.

But it’s a big problem, because your thyroid is like a control center for your body’s organs. In fact, poor thyroid function has been linked to:

Uncontrollable weight gain,

Memory problems,

High cholesterol,

Blood pressure swings,

Joint and muscle pain,

Depression,

Anxiety and mood swings,

Sensitivity to cold and,

Exhaustion.

And you can bet that what they found in the UK is just the tip of the iceberg.

Across the pond, only 10 percent of people receive fluoridated water. Here, it’s 72 percent of the population.

So what about all that talk about how great fluoride is for your teeth? Well, a study published years ago in Environmental Health Perspectives found that fluoride actually interferes with the natural production of tooth enamel.

In fact, the U.S. has some of the highest rates of dental fluorosis in the industrialized world. That’s a pitting of your teeth that’s caused by… you guessed it… too much fluoride exposure.

Now it used to be that the easiest way to remove fluoride from your water was to buy a reverse osmosis system for your sink, which can cost hundreds of dollars. But now you can buy pitchers and filters with activated alumina for less than $50.

And that’s an investment worth making. Because the longer we keep swallowing Uncle Sam’s lies about fluoride, the better chance we could all end up in hot water.